Originally published on Dec. 2, 2018
By Zane Miller
The Last Hurrah is a
series that discusses the final major sports events at sporting venues around
the world.
On Sunday, November 22nd,
1998, the NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Monster Energy Cup Series) heading to
Twin Ring Motegi in Motegi, Japan, for the first and only running of the NASCAR
Thunder Special Motegi.
The race, also known
unofficially as the ‘Coca-Cola 500’ in Japan, was an exhibition event set up by
NASCAR to help promote their brand internationally. The series had previously
run in Japan with exhibition races held in 1996 and 1997, however both of those
events were at the Suzuka Circuit, a 1.394-mile road course about six hours
south of Motegi, best known for its Formula One races hosted at the track.
Twin Ring Motegi was a
brand-new facility at the time, opening in late 1997. The ‘Twin Ring’ part of
the name comes from the fact that they have both an oval course as well as a
separate road course overlapping the oval.
The oval, which is what
the Cup Series used for the race, was a 1.549 mile-long speedway with 10
degrees of banking in the turns. At that point, the track had only held one
other major race in the Budweiser 500K run by the CART open-wheel series in
March earlier that year.
Due to its newness, the drivers
came in with little to no experience with the course, compounded by the unique
shape of the track with both straightaways being at an angle, making it
difficult to find other tracks on the Cup Series circuit to compare it to.
The series had concluded
its 50th season just two weeks prior, with Jeff Gordon claiming his third
championship with one of the strongest seasons in modern series history. Gordon
earned 13 wins, winning over a third of the races, on the way to winning the championship
by 364 points and mathematically locked up the championship a race before the
season finale in Atlanta.
Despite the race not
being held for any points, the drivers still had a couple practice sessions
along with a qualifying run in order to familiarize themselves a little bit
with the track. Gordon, being the 1998 champion, was one of the favorites to
win, as well as having international fame on his side with many of the local
fans wearing Jeff Gordon t-shirts, hats and other merchandise along with
displaying banners in the grandstands congratulating him on his championship
season.
Another favorite was Mike
Skinner, who had won the last year’s race in Japan at the Suzuka road course
and looked poised to have another good run with a third-place starting spot.
The race is also notable
for being the first ever Cup Series event for future Daytona 500 winner and fan
favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was also coming off a championship as he had
won the NASCAR Busch Grand National (now Xfinity) Series championship just a
week prior.
Also noteworthy is that the
track’s automated scoring system went out early on in the race, making it
difficult for the TV crew to keep up despite their best efforts. If you watch
the broadcast of the race, keep in mind that many graphics are off from what
they actually were in the race.
The race got underway at
around 1 p.m., which was 11 p.m. on Saturday night on the east coast of the
U.S., with Jeremy Mayfield starting on the pole and leading the opening lap,
until Gordon took the lead on lap 2. Mayfield took the lead back on lap 3, when
the first caution came out for NASCAR Winston West Series (now K&N Pro
Series West) regular Ken Burns spun and backed into the wall, causing
significant damage to his car and promptly went to the garage for repairs. Gordon
retook the lead on the ensuing restart and was able to stay there. Lap 15 saw another
Winston West Series regular, Gary Smith, go the garage with electrical problems,
although he would return to the track later on.
The struggles for Winston
West drivers continued as West Series racer Kelly Tanner went to the garage
around lap 19 with engine problems, while Jeff Burton took the lead from Gordon
on lap 21. The situation would get even more challenging for Gordon on lap 23,
when he was involved in the race’s second caution as local driver Motohiro
Nakaji spun and hit the passenger side of Gordon’s car before bouncing off the inside
wall and would be done for the day.
Gordon, meanwhile,
despite having a significant dent on the side of his car, would still be able
to remain competitive, speaking to the strength of his team on speedways that
season. Skinner took the lead on pit road on lap 28, but was overtaken by 1996
Suzuka race winner Rusty Wallace on lap 30. The back-and-forth battle between
the two would continue as Skinner retook the lead on lap 33, followed by
Wallace getting it back on lap 39. On lap 40, the caution would come out again
as another Japanese driver, Kazuteru Wakida, suffered a blown engine that would
put him out of the race as well. When the race restarted, Skinner grabbed the
lead once again, but there would be a hairy moment as Burton and Ricky Craven
made contact on the restart. Burton would continue on but Craven would have to
pit with fender damage.
The Japanese locals’
struggles continued on lap 49, when Keiichi Tsuchiya, who is credited with inventing
and popularizing drifting competitions (one of the most popular forms of
motorsport in Japan today) through illegal street races on mountain passes in
the late 1980’s, spun out and collected another one-off driver in Randy Nelson,
who was already running a number of laps down. Both drivers would be out of the
race. Three of the four Japanese racers were out of the race, leaving Hideo
Fukuyama, who would go on to finish 17th.
On the following round of
pit stops, Sterling Marlin stayed out to lead a couple of laps, before being
overtaken by Burton on lap 52. Mayfield retook the lead from Burton a lap
later, but Skinner grabbed the lead back on lap 55.
Not much would change
until lap 71, when Burns spun out again to bring out another caution. Burton
grabbed the lead on pit road, but it wouldn’t take long for Mayfield to retake
the lead as he passed Burton just a lap after the restart. On lap 79, Wallace passed
teammate Mayfield to get back in the lead, but Mayfield would get back out in
front just a lap later. On lap 82 Earnhardt Jr. brushed against the wall, but
would continue without any significant damage. On lap 84 however, two drivers
would suffer significant damage as Darrell Waltrip, filling in for Dale Jarrett
who was recovering from surgery he had at the end of the season, was bumped
into a spin by Bobby Hamilton and bounced off the outside wall. Waltrip would
be unable to continue in the event.
Burton took the lead once
again, however Wallace grabbed the lead back on lap 90 and would stay out in
front for a majority of the middle part of the race. On lap 108, Craven went to
the garage with overheating problems, likely due to the copious amounts of tape
on the front end of his car from contact earlier in the race. While things
finally seemed to settle down for a long green flag run, a number of leaders
headed down pit road on lap 139, relinquishing the lead to Dale Earnhardt, who had
been in the top 10 throughout the race and decided to stay out to lead a lap
before coming in a lap later. This led to his teammate Skinner, with an
excellent stop by his crew, to jump back out in front as the green flag pit
stops cycled out. However, the green flag run ended on lap 154, when Burns lost
power and stopped on the track to bring out a caution for a third time. Although
he was able to re-fire, at that point he said the heck with it and pulled into
the garage and out of the race.
Skinner maintained the
lead following the restart, but on lap 168 Elliott Sadler, in his first ride
for The Wood Brothers before going into his rookie season, lost a cylinder in
his engine and would be forced to go the garage with engine difficulties. Some
more mechanical troubles would be found by current superspeedway specialist Brendan
Gaughan, who like Earnhardt Jr. was getting his first ride in the Cup Series, had
an exhaust pipe dragging on the track on lap 175. However, things would get
much worse for him 10 laps later, as was collected in an accident with
Hamilton, with both cars seeming to back into the wall, causing Gaughan’s car
to burst into flames after impact. Both drivers would be okay as safety crews
put out the fire, but neither driver would be able to continue.
Skinner again kept the
lead through the restart as Burton, who had been closing in on Skinner before
the caution came out, did not have a good restart and lost a couple positions.
This let Gordon take second place and begin closing in on Skinner himself. With
less than five laps to go, Gordon had pulled to within a car length by getting
great runs off of turns three and four, but Skinner was able to block his
momentum each time on the bottom of the race track. On the final lap, Gordon looked
to run a lane higher than Skinner in order to get around him, but was unable to
carry the same momentum. In the final turns, Skinner nearly made a costly
mistake, drifting up the track and allowing Gordon to have the bottom lane
unimpeded, but Gordon would run out of time as Skinner beat him to the line by
.153 seconds to claim his second victory in Japan.
“I tell you, this race
team has been coming,” Skinner said after finishing his burnouts. “A lot of
drivers said they were going to win a race before the year’s out. We didn’t do
it, but we can keep winning these non-points races. Jeff Gordon I knew was going
to be tough and it looked like Jeff Burton had the best car at the end of the
race, the caution came out and we needed a caution, our car was pushing really
bad and I was trying so hard not to overdrive it. Everybody’s going, ‘just keep
that thing on the bottom’, but I was cussing and saying ‘It won’t stay on the
bottom, it won’t stay nowhere’… After a
while, it starts looking impossible to beat the 24, everybody’s doing
everything we can and I don’t know what would have happened if there had been
another lap to go.”
The Cup Series has not returned to Japan or had any
international events, non-points or otherwise, since this race, citing the high
travel costs as well as a low attendance with only about 41,000 or the 55,000
available seats filled for the race. However, the Xfinity Series would continue
running international races, holding a race in Mexico City from 2005 to 2008
and a race in Montreal from 2007 to 2012, as well as today with the NASCAR
Gander Outdoors Truck Series being the only one of the three main series to
race internationally with its annual race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in
Bowmanville, Ontario, near Toronto.
As for Twin Ring Motegi, the track hosted the Winston
West Series’ season ending race in 1999, which was won by Kevin Richards while Sean
Woodside took home the championship, but it would be the last time that NASCAR
has come to the track for any of its series. Meanwhile, the track continued to
host an annual CART race from 1998-2002, until the IndyCar Series picked up the
track on its schedule instead. From there, the series raced on the track from
2003-2010, during which time the track also became notable for being the site
of the first victory for Danica Patrick, the only win for a female driver in
the series to this point. However, 2011 was the last time that IndyCar was
planned to come back to Japan.
Unfortunately, the story of Twin Ring Motegi takes a
tragic turn. On March 11th, 2011, Japan was hit with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake
that was registered just 43 miles off the eastern coast. The quake also
triggered a tsunami that reached up to 133-foot high waves, causing further
destruction in its wake. It was one of the worst natural disasters in recorded
history, with over 15,000 known deaths and thousands more injured, as well as
billions of dollars’ worth of damage caused.
Although the track was about 100 miles away from the
main site, it was still significantly affected as the track’s asphalt surface was
broken and not able to be race-ready in time for the final planned IndyCar race
in September of that same year, although the road course on the facility
suffered more fixable damage. As a result the series opted to run the race on
the road course instead. There were concerns from some drivers and crew members
about possible radiation poisoning, as the tsunami also flooded a nearby
nuclear power plant and caused radiation to leak into the atmosphere, however
independent scientists tested the area and declared it safe. The race was run on
September 16th, 2011 with Scott Dixon taking the win. However, this is the last
major race run at the facility to date.
While the road course still holds smaller series such as MotoGP and Super GT racing, the oval has not been used since the 2010 IndyCar race. The oval has yet to be fully repaired from the earthquake and there is no word on when the course will be used again.
Link to stats database: https://www.racing-reference.info/race/1998_NASCAR_Thunder_Special_Motegi/X
Watch the full race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msd3tlowUr4
Other sources:
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/official20110311054624120_30/executive#executive
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/industry/japanese-motorsport-reeling-after-earthquake/
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